Bonus: Just a Little Cartilage with Kai Grayson

Ode (@thatsod.e / @thatsod_e) and Mo "Kid" Licorish (@licorishislegit) welcome Kai Grayson to a Black and Snerdy bonus episode, a screenwriter, producer, cosplayer and pro wrestler whose credits include Work It Out Wombats!, The Creature Cases and Genevieve's Playhouse. Kai arrives with blue hair from her Mollymauk Tealeaf cosplay from Critical Role's The Mighty Nein and traces her path from Altadena to Emerson College, London and Tokyo.

She credits Over the Garden Wall with turning her from a would-be director of Narnia-style fantasy films into an animation writer. She also describes having her own experiences edited out of scripts and being let go from two shows about Black families.

The conversation moves to the ring, where Kai explains how a joke about late friends became Kai Maintenance, a mean janitor who debuted at Dyke Day LA and earned a standing ovation at her first in-ring show. She names Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Jade Cargill and Nyla Rose as dream tag team partners and talks about Roles for Initiative LA, her D&D live play improv show.

Two games follow: an anime and video game trivia round covering Ouran High School Host Club, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Jujutsu Kaisen, Gurren Lagann, Persona 5 and Baldur's Gate 3, then Emoji Me, Senpai with Gojo, Tanjiro, Nezuko, Link and Sora. The closing segments cover The Legend of Zelda concert tour, New York bureaucracy, subway etiquette, and Halloween cosplay season.

Kai Grayson's Linktree: linktr.ee/kaigrayson Connect with the Snerdy Crew: Watch, Listen, or Sponsor the show: ⁠